I will make one small non -cryptic post hear to clear up any confusion or misinterpretation. I left the Bob Dylan tour of my own accord. All I can say is it wasn't for musical reasons and please don't ask any more. I enjoyed my brief stay there and had a lot of fun with the band playing Bob's music. I have great respect for him as an artist. I will miss everyone in the organization as they are all wonderful people. I wish them continued success and I will miss them all. Case closed!

Oh course he left of his own accord. Well sort of. When given a choice between resigning and being terminated, most choose to resign. I suspect a hefty severance was offered for him to go away peacefully, clearly an offer he couldn't refuse. Had he accepted being terminated for breach of contract (or whatever went down) or without cause (i.e. Bob just didn't like playing with him), any compensation wouldn't be seen for years, and not without great effort and expense, assuming he was successful which is very unlikely. Bob's legal team knows their stuff. It's quick and painless and in the end everyone wins. Bob gets rid of him, Duke gets a generous settlement effortlessly and can forever be remembered on Facebook as the one who quit Bob Dylan's band.

Charlie had been busy planning his wedding. That gets old. I'm sure he's thrilled to be called up to the plate, if only temporarily.

It seems clear to me that Bob was not happy with Duke during parts of the Spring tour. Duke knew it, Bob knew it, they talked. Bob had already invested a lot of time and money in his new guitarist, so he wasn't going to give up prematurely. Speculation only, but it could be that Duke stepped it up for the last few shows in the spring, Bob decided it was okay, that Duke was a work in progress, and then they had the break. Americanarama rolls around, the Duke that shows up is the same Duke that pissed him off a few times in the spring, Bob blows up, Duke posts on Facebook like a high school girl, Bob has no choice but to end it. Somebody else has already said it,* but my guess is that the reason Duke is playing nice at the moment is that it was part of his severance -- Bob will pay him through the rest of the tour if he will just keep his mouth shut.

Many people who have worked with or had other experiences with the great, Buddha-like Bob Dylan have come away saying he's a complete asshole...enough people that we have to assume he's at the very least capable of acting like an asshole, whatever narrative about him being misunderstood we may construct to protect our own image of our hero. Duke was on for a whole tour to almost universal acclaim and was then brought back. If their styles did not mesh or he couldn't "hang" he would have been quietly replaced during the break. There was obviously some incident or action which so upset the avuncular guitar slinger that even the money, perks and prestige of playing with one of the most famous men in the world were not enough for him to stay. He'd rather do club dates than play stadiums with Bob Dylan, and I have to conclude that it took a LOT to make him feel that way (as common sense would dictate). As some wise person said earlier I really can't help but like Bob Dylan, and this won't change that, but I'm not going to twist myself into knots trying to pretend Duke had some musical shortcoming that only presented itself four shows into his second tour.

I don't know why no one's allowing the possibility that Duke actually meant what he said. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were personality conflicts, but there's a lot of other things that could have gone down as well. Health problems, personal problems, personal loss, etc. etc. I'd totally believe it if Duke and/or Bob were hard to work with, but there's just not enough evidence to draw conclusions. As always, we're just believing what we want to believe and filling in the rather canyon-sized blanks with our own prejudices.

I don't know why no one's allowing the possibility that Duke actually meant what he said.

Because nobody walks away from winning the Powerball. "Thanks Bob, it's been swell. I can't make ends meet so I'm gonna sell off CDs and guitars on the internet and give guitar lessons but I think it's time for me to move on. Best of luck, pal!"

Lots of people do. We all get to the point where we get tired of putting up with bullshit. Bob showed him up on stage & he decided no amount of money was worth it. Duke is 64 years old. I'm 55 & I guarantee you that I tell a lot more people to go to hell than I did when I was 25 or 35. It's a perfectly believable scenario for me.

Lots of people do. We all get to the point where we get tired of putting up with bullshit. Bob showed him up on stage & he decided no amount of money was worth it. Duke is 64 years old. I'm 55 & I guarantee you that I tell a lot more people to go to hell than I did when I was 25 or 35. It's a perfectly believable scenario for me.

He got tired of it 3 shows in (Sunday, start of FB drama) and walked away? Nope, I don't buy it. You believe your scenario if you wish. Point is we just don't know.

I don't know why no one's allowing the possibility that Duke actually meant what he said.

Because nobody walks away from winning the Powerball. "Thanks Bob, it's been swell. I can't make ends meet so I'm gonna sell off CDs and guitars on the internet and give guitar lessons but I think it's time for me to move on. Best of luck, pal!"

If your wife is dying of cancer you might. Of course I'm not saying that's the reason, but why couldn't it be along those lines?

I don't know why no one's allowing the possibility that Duke actually meant what he said. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were personality conflicts, but there's a lot of other things that could have gone down as well. Health problems, personal problems, personal loss, etc. etc. I'd totally believe it if Duke and/or Bob were hard to work with, but there's just not enough evidence to draw conclusions. As always, we're just believing what we want to believe and filling in the rather canyon-sized blanks with our own prejudices.

You're right. The very well-supported narrative of "Bob just didn't like Duke and/or his playing, so he treated him badly and Duke eventually quit" could be an enormous coincidence.

It's more like I'm not willing to pretend I watch a reality show about Bob's life because I read a few weird facebook posts Oh, and second-hand accounts of Bob speaking to Duke on stage regarding conversations no one heard. As always, thinking we know the man is arrogance and nothing more.

Lots of people do. We all get to the point where we get tired of putting up with bullshit. Bob showed him up on stage & he decided no amount of money was worth it. Duke is 64 years old. I'm 55 & I guarantee you that I tell a lot more people to go to hell than I did when I was 25 or 35. It's a perfectly believable scenario for me.

He got tired of it 3 shows in (Sunday, start of FB drama) and walked away? Nope, I don't buy it. You believe your scenario if you wish. Point is we just don't know.

He got tired of it 3 shows in coz Bob dressed him down on stage during the 3rd show. If it had happened during the 10th show, Duke woulda got tired of it 10 shows in.

You're right, we don't know, I'm just stating that something is a believable scenario for me. We'll probably never know & likely have just Duke's FB post to go by, whether we believe it or not. Bob sure as hell won't speak up about it. The only media he even gives interviews to is Rolling Stone & they never ask him the questions I'd ask Bob if I had him in the room. They'd sooner ask him about world peace or same-sex marriage or how to cure malaria.

Duke didnt just walk into a guitar 5 minutes ago, whatever agreement he had with Bob was in written form.

i dont know how folks thinks 99.99 percent of bands work, but in fact the way they work is that everybody thinks everybody else is out of tune. how can duke be made to resign for playing like duke, who has not only played with Bob before but has many many records out which represent his playing.

Just getting involved in this discussion for fun - I agree that it sounds like problems with one's boss. That facebook message is diplomatically well-worded, while conveying meaning, in that there were no "musical reasons" for the departure (but perhaps interpersonal reasons), that he enjoyed his time "with the band playing Bob's music" (not with the boss) and that he respects Dylan "as an artist," not as a colleague or something of the sort. There's a definite subtext of there being professional reasons for the departure, i.e. not getting along with his employer. It wouldn't be that surprising: I think Dylan's professional pricklyness or peculiarity is well-known.

This is also obviously complete conjecture. As Warren Peace noted, it absolutely could be a personal emergency of some sort. The wording of the update just makes me think otherwise.

On a related note, this is kind of a downer. Duke really enhanced the show I saw on the Spring tour, and was a serious draw to pull me to an Americanarama show. Charlie's just not as present in the songs, and it's too bad the band may sound more like 2012 than they did this Spring.

This video shows what Duke "Look, Mommy, my guitar strap has my name on it" Robillard cannot say, even to himself.

rbgeorge wrote:

I'm sure that making the same post in two threads is frowned upon, but I figured people tuning in to this thread might like a little visual of Bob shaming Duke. This comes from Duke's first show, April 5th in Buffalo, during an extended performance of Thunder on the Mountain.

Quote:

I have witnessed Bob give a couple of onstage "shamings", including the one in Buffalo this April which was referenced in this or one of the other Duke threads, over which there was some debate as to whether or not it was actually a shaming (I was on the rail for it, watched it closely, and took it to be a shaming). What you describe sounds like it could've happened the night after Buffalo.

AWESOME...in researching my previous comments on this event, I found an excellent video of it!

Fast forward to about 12:00 or so. Bob gives Duke a ridiculous amount of room to solo and Duke just doesn't go anywhere with it. You can see Bob get a little fed up. At 12:48, Bob drops his hands to his sides in a rather defeated-looking way, looks around for a moment, then moves his harmonica mic and leans up against the piano, listening to Duke. To me, the look on Bob's face at this point said "Oh, really? Really? Jeezus..." He bops his head along for a moment, then at 13:09 Bob drops his head, slams his harmonica mic on the piano, and walks away. After a few words with Donnie, he comes back to the piano to "listen" to Duke some more, only this time his posture is much more mocking, with his hands up on the piano, elbows locked, nodding even more sarcastically, tapping his hand on the piano, scratching his head and looking back toward Donnie as if to say, "Did I leave the stove on?", putting his hand on his hip, and finally re-entering on piano rather loudly.

At the time of the show, several people interpreted this to be Bob earnestly "giving respect" to Duke, leaning back and watching the spectacle. However, Duke was really dogging it during this performance and everything about Bob's facial expression and body language, both in person and in this video, said shaming to me.

Edited to add: His onstage manner during this incident reminds me a great deal of when he couldn't find his harmonica on Letterman.

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